With its October 2014 day-long conference on competency-based education and Higher Education Innovation Challenge (HEIC), the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is creating a space in which New England states and institutions can wrestle with the critical issues driven by abundant information. The HEIC lists multiple areas where the impact of abundant information can and will be felt, ranging from student retention to curricular alignment with careers on the one hand, to powerful new uses of data and new understandings of quality on the other. While all the areas listed in the challenge must be addressed, the advent of the age of abundant information brings additional questions and underlying realities that must also be considered as part of the process. In this article, the author details five issues that institutions must address if they are to cope successfully with a world of abundant information: (1) abundant high-quality content; (2) evidence-based assessments; (3) the shift from teaching to learning support; (4) links to work readiness; and (5) the emergence of non-accredited third-party players. He concludes that the one consistent strand that runs through each of the five is the ability to harness the power of IT and big data to serve learners in ways that were unimaginable 10 years ago. This exemplifies the promise of disruption: that the forces doing the disrupting also contain the seeds for survival and success in the emerging world.